More about blogging

Summary

In this particular post, I will try to introduce blogging, the concept, guidelines & ways to blog, essential points, tips on how to participate among others to help newbies to understand this part of the world that we ofen refer to the blogosphere.

My personal experience?

I am present on the web since 2002 through my personal web site www.yashvin.net and started to blog since 10th October 2006.

The topics I usually blog about are usually related to my everyday life, problems that people or myself encounter, illegal practices, interesting facts and also, i do provide a platform for others to express themselves on topics they want me to discuss, gathering the views of the maxi of persons…

I am not the only blogger on earth, but I try to be original in what I write and usually this is wat builds your reputation in this world…

Mind some of you, calling me “Blogger” is something that really encourages me for I know that there are lots of people reading my pages…

All I want is your support through your regular visits and your participation in the various blog posts…

Definition

A blog is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

“Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

The different blogging platforms

For anyone to blog, you usually need to have a web log software (platform) which will allow you to maintain your blog, add new articles (blog posts) etc etc…

You have different such software available freely on the net, among which

The most handy RSS aggregator which I recommend is Google Reader, and it happens that i use it myself…

When you click on the RSS Icon, your browser will usually ask you to choose a RSS aggregator.

You can choose to use Google Reader as your default aggregator and your browser will then display the following page

You can display the latest posts on either your Google homepage or into the Google reader.

By visiting your google reader on a regular basis, you can thus keep track of all new posts on the blogs which you have subscribed to.

[see above, 2 new blogs have been updated since the last time i checked my unread items]

Participating in Blogs

Very often, while visiting blogs, you may ask yourself “Why should I leave a comment?”

Yashvin says:

For 2 main reasons:

To share your view on the particular post, am sure, you have got something to say!

By writing your comment, you are not only sharing your views but also

Encouraging the blogger (BELIEVE ME, its really a boost for the blogger!)

Making other visitors know that you were here, reading the same article

The next time you read something, do think about leaving some words…

How to make your blogging experience better?

There are several ways to spice up your blogging experience, as a blogger or as a simple visitor.

For now, lets talk for a simple visitor who likes to visits blogs very often, and has the courage to drop a few words from time to time…

You can subscribe to RSS Feeds(2) and Comments RSS Feeds (refer to (3) from above picture)

You can build your own identity by registering your email address on social networking sites such as Gravatar, mybloglog which will allow you to display your avatar on most of the blogs, alongside with your comments…

Signing up for a Gravatar

Gravatar (an abbreviation for globally recognized avatar) is a concept for globally-unique avatars which was invented by Tom Werner.

On Gravatar, users can register an account based on their email address, and upload an avatar to be associated with the account. Gravatar plugins are available for popular blogging software; when the user posts a comment on such a blog that requires an e-mail address, the blogging software checks whether that e-mail address has an associated avatar at Gravatar. If so, the Gravatar is shown along with the comment.

With the latest versions of WordPress, Gravatar is highly used in all blogs and its a must for anyone to create their account…

With a gravatar account

without a gravatar account

So here are the steps which you should follow to get your free account at Gravatar.com…

Thanks Yashvin,
I have come across your blog unexpectedly and quite delighted from the experience. In particular, I found the blog tutorial very interesting indeed. Very inspiring, in fact I now want to start a blog too!! Contagious enthusiam!!

About

Ex SJC and UOM student, I love taking pictures and writing for my blog. As you will surely notice, I never miss an opportunity to post frequent updates on social networks too. So, keep tuned here & just follow me

About

Ex SJC and UOM student, I love taking pictures and writing for my blog. As you will surely notice, I never miss an opportunity to post frequent updates on social networks too. So, keep tuned here & just follow me